CORNISH NASTY!
Cornish couple banned from exchanging wedding vows in Cornish – by Cornwall council
A COUPLE say they were discriminated against by Cornwall council officials who told them they could not conduct their wedding in Cornish – but could do so in Welsh.
Steph Norman, 32, and Aaron Willoughby, 33, from Truro, had planned a ceremony which paid tribute to their Cornish heritage.
When the couple notified the council that they wanted to say their vows in Cornish, they were told they would have to recite them in English first.
To be legally binding, couples must say their wedding vows in either English or Welsh, officials said. While vows are allowed to be repeated in other languages after the legal exchange, Cornwall council said it did not have any registrars fluent in Cornish to conduct the ceremony.
Miss Norman, an NHS worker, and Mr Willoughby, a civil servant, claimed the law was unequal as Welsh residents were able to speak their native language – which has the same linguistic roots as Cornish.
Miss Norman said: ‘It feels like we’ve been a bit discriminated against because it’s not equal across the board. I feel that if everyone understands the language it should be up to them what language they speak. We haven’t [had] anyone come back to us yet, but the council are looking for us which is very nice of them.
‘I was very surprised, I just assumed we could do it, which is why I took to Twitter, and I was shocked by the response – the amount of people who didn’t know. I thought if Cornish people couldn’t do it, maybe Welsh people couldn’t do it.
‘And then I found out that all these Welsh people said “no, no we did all ours in Welsh”. I was really taken aback.’
The couple planned to get married at Pengersick Castle near Penzance in November and had arranged pints of mead, Cornish kilts and a giant Cornish pasty for their wedding breakfast.
While they may have hoped to say ‘Gwrav’ (I do) or ‘My a’th kar’ (I love you) in their vows in Kernewek, the protected Cornish language, they face reciting them in English. Miss Norman said: ‘I was born in Cornwall and Aaron is from a long line of people from God knows what year – he’s proper, proper Cornish.
‘We wanted to embrace our “Cornishness” and thought we’d make it a Cornish theme. We’ll just have to repeat the vows in Cornish.’
A council spokesman said: ‘We don’t have a fluent Cornish-speaking registrar but we can accommodate a Cornish translator if one is provided by the couple.’
‘I was really taken aback’